clubhouse and pitch owned by trustees?

WhiteWalls

I only found out that my local pitch and clubhouse is basically owned by a few people from the area who are called trustees.

Is this the case with most clubs?

tickingclock

WhiteWalls wrote: »

I only found out that my local pitch and clubhouse is basically owned by a few people from the area who are called trustees.

Is this the case with most clubs?

I'm involved in a local GAA club. The trustees don't own ours. They are liable if we ever can't repay a loan. They don't actually own the clubhouse and pitches.

megadodge

WhiteWalls wrote: »

I only found out that my local pitch and clubhouse is basically owned by a few people from the area who are called trustees.

Is this the case with most clubs?

That's the case in a lot of sports clubs not just GAA ones.

Bass Reeves

WhiteWalls wrote: »

I only found out that my local pitch and clubhouse is basically owned by a few people from the area who are called trustees.

Is this the case with most clubs?

The trustees do not own the club and pitches, if they are vested in the GAA. There general duties are responsibility for loans and for holding the property in trust for the club

megadodge

Bass Reeves wrote: »

The trustees do not own the club and pitches, if they are vested in the GAA. There general duties are responsibility for loans and for holding the property in trust for the club

Land Registry doesn't register trustees anymore. The actual trustees are registered as the property owners on the Land Registry system.

Bass Reeves

megadodge wrote: »

Land Registry doesn't register trustees anymore. The actual trustees are registered as the property owners on the Land Registry system.

As far as I know it is still legally held in trust. As well as the local trustees there is usually 1-2 GAA trustees from county and province. For something underhand to be done all trustees must sign.

namloc1980

WhiteWalls wrote: »

I only found out that my local pitch and clubhouse is basically owned by a few people from the area who are called trustees.

Is this the case with most clubs?

They only own it in their capacity as trustees. It's pretty standard stuff for GAA clubs and other types of sports clubs. Clubs, as entities, can't legally own property or borrow money, it must be done by Trustees.

namloc1980

tickingclock wrote: »

I'm involved in a local GAA club. The trustees don't own ours. They are liable if we ever can't repay a loan. They don't actually own the clubhouse and pitches.

Their only liability is in their function as Trustees (usually of the collateral securing the loan). Trustees aren't personally liable for the club's debts.

WhiteWalls

namloc1980 wrote:

Their only liability is in their function as Trustees (usually of the collateral securing the loan). Trustees aren't personally liable for the club's debts.

If they put their own assets up against a loan then surely they are liable?

Danville

Clubs are not legal entities and so cannot get loans.
The trustees are elected by the club members.
Club trustees are the ones who get the finance in their own joint personal names, The club then does the fundraising to repay the loan.
The trustees are so jointly and individually liable in the event of a default and any security they may have put in place with the bank becomes liable to forfeiture.

WhiteWalls

Danville wrote:

Clubs are not legal entities and so cannot get loans. The trustees are elected by the club members. Club trustees are the ones who get the finance in their own joint personal names, The club then does the fundraising to repay the loan. The trustees are so jointly and individually liable in the event of a default and any security they may have put in place with the bank becomes liable to forfeiture.

Legally they own the pitch and have control over it though?

howiya

Have a look at pages 170-172 of the official guide

http://www.leinstergaa.ie/_fileupload/2015%20Official%20Guide%20-%20Part%201.pdf

Danville

howiya wrote: »

Have a look at pages 170-172 of the official guide

http://www.leinstergaa.ie/_fileupload/2015%20Official%20Guide%20-%20Part%201.pdf

To clarify my original post further:
Financial institutions will no longer lend to clubs as when problems ever developed, nobody in the club would take responsibility.
It was always the fault of a previous committee!

So now lending is done to the trustees personally.

Bass Reeves

Danville wrote: »

To clarify my original post further:
Financial institutions will no longer lend to clubs as when problems ever developed, nobody in the club would take responsibility.
It was always the fault of a previous committee!

So now lending is done to the trustees personally.

Lending was always done to Trustee's

namloc1980

WhiteWalls wrote: »

If they put their own assets up against a loan then surely they are liable?

A trustee who put up their own personal assets as security against a club loan would seriously want their head examined!

Boom__Boom

namloc1980 wrote: »

A trustee who put up their own personal assets as security against a club loan would seriously want their head examined!

I'd really like to see the GAA bring in rules that pretty much forbid clubs from going into debt unless they have extremely good reasons for doing so and extremely good plans in terms of paying any loans off.

I'd also like to see some rules about landswaps/sales of club lands and the like. A not insignificant number of clubs got in bother during the boom time doing deals with developers and the GAA don't seem to have put any rules in place to stop more instances of the the same happening again down the line.

robbiezero

Have any trustees ever got in bother due to being liable for a loan repayment that the club could not meet?

namloc1980

robbiezero wrote: »

Have any trustees ever got in bother due to being liable for a loan repayment that the club could not meet?

Trustees aren't personally liable for club debts. The only way they could be liable is if they put up their own assets (which would be insane) or through deliberate actions or misconduct that affected the club financially. In that case the club could sue the Trustee.